Advice requested on speakers

Blow aways the Vandies? I don't think so. I've heard the Montanas, and they are fine speakers, but for soundstaging the 1st Order Xover and phase aligned drivers of the Vandersteen create an extraordinairy deep and wide soundstage with good localization. Perhaps Montanas are worth auditioning, but don't expect them to blow away the Vandies, they won't.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good things about both Merlins and Montanas, but they aren't available locally, so they didn't make the cut.

If you are just going by local availability, then you should definitely audition with your ears and take what we have to say with a grain of salt -- listen to what your ears tell you, we all hear differently, and have personal ideas of what kind of sound most appeals to us. To me, it seems you could be happy with any of the speakers on your list, but I do like the ability to balance the bass to the room that VS offers, and I think you'll need that with a room your size - you'll need to control the bass. I would audition with a 100 watt tube amp with those VS though, I think they need quite a bit of current, even with their built in subwoofer amps.

77jovian - Just a suggestion from another serious classical listener who owned Vandy 3A's. In my room, with my equipment (which included an ARC VT100) I eventually became dissatisfied with the way the 3A's handled strings. They tended to be a little on the thin side, and too often a bit edgy. You can probably figure out this issue on the 5A's yourself by simply taking some recordings of string orchestras (meaning all strings, not full orchestras) and listening to them on the 5As. Give yourself some time, and see if they become fatiguing.

I eventually switched to Harbeths, although more recently have come to really like Spendor 1/2e's. Those are all particularly rich in the mid-range for strings.

That having been said, I have heard the 5A's recently in a very good set-up getting very nice sound on an opera disc. I was quite pleasantly surprised, and this made me curious about the most recent edition of the 5A's. And I must offer this caveat: I've never had 5A's in my house. In the shop I frequent, sometimes I've liked them very much, and sometimes I've not liked them at all. Very sensitive to set-up, and what you feed them, I gather.

I did some serious listening to the Quattros also, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the wood version. I considered buying them, but bought the 3A's instead, because I found the Quattros (at least that version) to be intolerably bright compared to the 3A's.

My very limited experience with the Sophia's would lead me to a similar conclusion about somewhat unsatisfactory string tone, but I've only listened to them a couple of times. Of all of the ones I mentioned, I remain most curious about the 5A's as possibilities for myself, in a much bigger room than I have (15 x 20).

Excellent comments. Thank you all. I'll let you know how it works out.